Hexblade Patron - who can it be aside from Raven Queen?

[Benny89]

I really try to wrap my head around "powerful entity from Shadowfell". It narrows everything too much.

For example, can Shar be my patron? or Mask? They both exist in Shadowfell. Vecna, Null?

They have to manifest through some sort of sentient weapon, correct?

Are there any other Shadowfell entities that could be my patron?

[Segev]

While arguably it should be an Archfey or a Fiend, one player in my game has a Warlock Hexblade whose patron is a Hag. The Hexblade Patron is so badly-defined and so broad in its abilities that you can fluff it to be just about anything. A Fiend could as easily bestow martial prowess as he does the Dark One's Own Luck.

In his case, his character's Patron was an Annis Hag who has become a Night Hag, and I'm going to have fun with a "gift" the hag is sending her just in time for the sixth level ability....

[Keravath]

There is very little constraint on exactly what form your hexblade patron might take ... it is a role playing and fluff decision and not a mechanical one.

"You have made your pact with a mysterious entity from the Shadowfell—a force that manifests in sentient magic weapons carved from the stuff of shadow. The mighty sword Blackrazor is the most notable of these weapons, which have been spread across the multiverse over the ages. The shadowy force behind these weapons can offer power to warlocks who form pacts with it. Many hexblade warlocks create weapons that emulate those formed in the Shadowfell. Others forgo such arms, content to weave the dark magic of that plane into their spellcasting.

Because the Raven Queen is known to have forged the first of these weapons, many sages speculate that she and the force are one and that the weapons, along with hexblade warlocks, are tools she uses to manipulate events on the Material Plane to her inscrutable ends."

1) You can choose any "mysterious entity" you like and can personify it or not. The Raven Queen would be one option in the lore but since the plane of shadow might be considered largely unexplored there is likely any number of entities you could make up that would fit the description. Some of these may manifest in sentient magic weapons. There is no requirement that there be only one such entity ... it is something for the player to work out with the DM.

2) You could actually choose a sentient magic weapon as your patron or at least as a conduit to whatever your patron may be.

[Segev]

Honestly, unless the DM has you on a quest to find Blackrazor or a similar sentient magic weapon, taking a sentient magic weapon as patron bugs me conceptually. They're generally NOT that powerful. It makes sense if your goal is to one day wield your patron, and he's calling to you to come find him. It doesn't make sense as a generic source of warlockian powers.

But then, I have a number of problems with the Hexblade, especially conceptually, so take my words with a grain of salt.

[Man_Over_Game]

Honestly, unless the DM has you on a quest to find Blackrazor or a similar sentient magic weapon, taking a sentient magic weapon as patron bugs me conceptually. They're generally NOT that powerful. It makes sense if your goal is to one day wield your patron, and he's calling to you to come find him. It doesn't make sense as a generic source of warlockian powers.

I always took the "weapon" thing as a symbolic reference. You are a weapon on behalf of your Patron, and so it gives you your symbol of a weapon-that is, a literal weapon-to be its weapon.

It's a hierarchy system. You are a servant to your lord, and your lord is a servant to his, until the person at the bottom of the chain is a literal servant.

Honestly, a sentient weapon treating their people as weapons by arming them seems to make perfect sense to me. How else would a weapon treat someone that's useful, and how would a sentient weapon make their servants better?

Although I just find it easier to treat the Hexblade as a Patron of Violence. Anything that turns you into a weapon is a Hexblade Patron. It could be a vengeful spirit, an intergalactic smith that wants to forge the next legendary weapon through bloodshed, or a patron that simply rewarded an assassin for their service.
Killing is what the Patron offers, sometimes with a preference for weapons. It's pretty easy to make a lot of things work around that.

[Joe the Rat]

As loose as it reads, anything from Dark Powers to Unseelie Court to beings with a significant curse and darkness theme work.

I've had a non-canon demon (Cremnos, Leaping Flame and Shadow), Ravenloft Powers (there's a specific location in Curse of Strahd that is literally stocked with potential Hex Patrons), and the intelligences which manifest as sentient weapons (which really takes a page from Moorcock. Stormbringer isn't a sentient sword, it's a manifold chaos entity, which expresses into 3+1 physical space as "big soul-sucking sword").

If I ever play a Hexblade, I am going all the way back to the UA's sentient weapon fixation, and have my Patron be a superdimensional weapons platform AI.

[Chronos]

One of the players in the game I'll be starting in a few weeks is playing a hexblade, mechanically at least, and he doesn't have a patron at all. He's just using it as a framework of rules to represent the unique form of training he's received. Which works a heck of a lot better than the tangled mess of fluff that's the default for the hexblade.

[Laserlight]

Anything from "I don't actually know who the Patron is, man, I was in a sticky situation, I stuck my knife in this weirdo high priest, I grabbed his knife, and, like, things got freaky, man, you know? " to pretty much any archfey, deity, whatever, who wants a gish. If it makes for a god story and the DM and player are happy, go with it.

[Man_Over_Game]

Anything from "I don't actually know who the Patron is, man, I was in a sticky situation, I stuck my knife in this weirdo high priest, I grabbed his knife, and, like, things got freaky, man, you know? " to pretty much any archfey, deity, whatever, who wants a gish. If it makes for a god story and the DM and player are happy, go with it.

I couldn't help but hear that in the voice of Shaggy from the Mystery Gang. That'd make for a pretty interesting character.

[Segev]

I couldn't help but hear that in the voice of Shaggy from the Mystery Gang. That'd make for a pretty interesting character.

Pact of the Chain, with Scoob as his familiar?

[jmartkdr]

One idea I had was for a dragonborn hexblade with a shadow dragon as the patron.

Anything shadowy will work. And if you're willing to tweak the 6th level feature, anything that at least kinda makes sense as a patron will work.

[Millstone85]

There is no requirement that there be only one such entity ... it is something for the player to work out with the DM.

Only because a DM would be wise to ignore the fluff as presented in XGtE, where there is only one Hexblade.

[Sorinth]

Honestly the patron is purely fluff. There's no reason you couldn't have some sort of Shadow Fiend as a Patron but simply gain all the mechanics of the Hexblade. An Avenging Angel could just as easily grant the powers associated with the Fiend, a GOO could easily give anything, etc...

[Addaran]

A moonblade could be a good patron. It's the elven magical swords that have your ancestors' spirit in them, in Forgotten Realms. So instead of being a "real" magic item, all your class abilities and spells comes from it. Or the spells could just be teaching from your great great grand father that's in the blade, some ancient form of magic most don't know anymore.

[Evaar]

I more or less ignored the "canon" as presented in XGTE. My first Hexblade character (who didn't start as a Hexblade because it didn't exist yet) was a grandchild (add a few "great-great-great-great"s in there) of the Queen Of Air And Darkness. Yeah she's an Archfey, but her theming all fits with what the Hexblade actually does so it never felt like a mismatch.

Next week I'm planning to join a game as a Hexbow, and my patron will be either Beshaba or one of her exarchs. The Hexblade's Curse mechanic perfectly fits a, well, hex of bad luck like what Beshaba would cause. Plus his weapon is going to look like a longbow made of black antlers, he's rad as hell.

You can get a lot of flexibility from the Hexblade without having to reflavor much. Any sort of entity associated with darkness, shadows, chaos, mischief, death, war, or hunting could be a good fit. Just think about what story the mechanics are telling you -

Your attacks are based on Charisma, meaning they're a force of your will. So you could say that's like a Sith, using the sheer strength of your passions to drive your martial prowess. Or it could be that you're just a happy-go-lucky swashbuckler whose martial style is based on looking good first, and it just always seems to come out in your favor.

Second, you have the Hexblade's Curse. This makes the target weak to your attacks, gives you HP when they die, and eventually makes them more likely to miss you: so it could be that you're marking them as prey, you've cursed them with bad luck, or it could be that you commanded their shadow to turn against them and the practical effects of that are the mechanics. Lots of options here. Maybe they're swarmed with shadowy ravens and when they die the ravens carry their soul to your patron and your patron rewards you with renewed vigor. Or maybe you're draining their soul's energy before it slips into the afterlife.

Third you have the Accursed Specter. This can be just straight up necromancy, or maybe those shadowy ravens from before shapeshift into spectral chains, or at the moment of the target's death you severed their shadow and bound it to your service temporarily, or that you and the unwitting enemy agreed to a cosmic wager when you engaged in battle and the stakes of that wager are that the enemy has to serve you for a time if it loses.

It's your character, you can flavor these things however you'd like. Just stick to the core theming of the class and everything translates easily - or if you're confident, you can even play against type. Maybe your patron is an angel of Lathander, and your powers represent the darkness that ushers in the dawn.

[Pex]

Anyone you want worked with your DM.

I once played a lawful good hexblade of a lawful good Sun deity. He's the light that causes the shadow. He's the light that lets you see the shadow. He's the light that surrounds the shadow. He works within the shadows to bring out the light.

[Benny89]

Thanks all for you replies. I have idea but I need some help. My idea is that my character found broken, ancient sentient weapon when she was being chased and dying and it connected her to some really really old entity. She has vision of giant runic tomb (pierced by tons of weapons of giant size) at some wrecked plane with sun hidden behind black storm clouds.

Plane seems wrecked by some ancient war with tons of weapons (many looking similar to sentient weapon she found), armors and skeletons of various sizes and origins lying around tomb. Inside there is entity that was betrayed and imprisoned eons ago, but it enemies could not kill it completely. Now it wants to regein it's power and return. He offers her help and power in return for sending it souls of those which she slain using strange artifact (the stone from weapon she found). It's up to her to judge who is to be send. Then it will seek revange. Right now it's but a shadow of it's former self. But with its power growing - so will grow the power of my character (for the roleplay sake to explain leveling up). She makes this pact, and the weapon shatters (leaving only the runic stone) and she get connected to this entity as its Hexblade.

Now, I have a question regarding lore (I am not best with DnD lore)- does anyone know from lore any entity that would fit? Entity that is supposedly dead, but I want to make it that it survived and wants to return. It doesn't have to be evil but it would be nice if it was something that was (once) powerfull enough that others wanted to stop it.

Anything that would fit from the lore?

[Segev]

Possibly, but the answer might vary based on setting. What campaign or campaign setting are you planning to take this character into?

[Benny89]

Possibly, but the answer might vary based on setting. What campaign or campaign setting are you planning to take this character into?

Forgotten Realms. Classic really, I don't think we chang anything when it comes to official lore of 5e edition.

[Segev]

Forgotten Realms. Classic really, I don't think we chang anything when it comes to official lore of 5e edition.

Well, there's Acererak. After defeat at one of two possible Tombs.

An atropol, after it died (again).

The original Mystral died to Karsus's Folly; she might be less permanently dead than advertised. Shar would NOT be happy about her coming back.

Maybe Ubtao isn't merely gone, but actually got imprisoned/slain by a vengeful and powerful champion of Omu, prior to Omu's fall.

Levistus is a devil-lord who was usurped and is imprisoned in a coffin of ice.

Karsus himself might be unable to die due to rejection by the god(s) that should have accepted him.

Miska the Wolf-Spider and/or the Queen of Chaos could work, though both are extremely evil as well as extremely ancient and tied to the Rod of Seven Parts.

Gaz, of the emponymous sword, might be less dead than Vecna would hope.

The Machine of Lum the Mad might be seeking a new operator.

[MaxWilson]

I really try to wrap my head around "powerful entity from Shadowfell". It narrows everything too much.

For example, can Shar be my patron? or Mask? They both exist in Shadowfell. Vecna, Null?

They have to manifest through some sort of sentient weapon, correct?

Are there any other Shadowfell entities that could be my patron?

Why not The Grim Reaper, Death? (Either as a personification or an abstract concept.) Immortal, unkillable, nigh-omnipotent, thematically linked with the Shadowfell but not confined solely there... seems like a good match.

[Benny89]

Well, there's Acererak. After defeat at one of two possible Tombs.

An atropol, after it died (again).

The original Mystral died to Karsus's Folly; she might be less permanently dead than advertised. Shar would NOT be happy about her coming back.

Maybe Ubtao isn't merely gone, but actually got imprisoned/slain by a vengeful and powerful champion of Omu, prior to Omu's fall.

Levistus is a devil-lord who was usurped and is imprisoned in a coffin of ice.

Karsus himself might be unable to die due to rejection by the god(s) that should have accepted him.

Miska the Wolf-Spider and/or the Queen of Chaos could work, though both are extremely evil as well as extremely ancient and tied to the Rod of Seven Parts.

Gaz, of the emponymous sword, might be less dead than Vecna would hope.

The Machine of Lum the Mad might be seeking a new operator.

WOW! Mate, those are all great!! Gonna dig that lore of them asap. I especially like Levistus as I wanted to take at some point Levistus Tomb invocation, which would fit nicely.

If you have more of those- throw them on me. Gonna have busy weekend.

[Segev]

WOW! Mate, those are all great!! Gonna dig that lore of them asap. I especially like Levistus as I wanted to take at some point Levistus Tomb invocation, which would fit nicely.

If you have more of those- throw them on me. Gonna have busy weekend.

Glad to help. The only other one I can think of isn't Forgotten Realms-specific, but rather Planescape-specific, but would at least be relevant in the FR setting due to how well-connected Planescape is to the rest of D&D: Aoskar, the (former) god of Doors.

He was the only god ever permitted to set up a temple in Sigil, the City of Doors. Then he tried to take the city over from the Lady of Pain. Aoskar is not anywhere to be found anymore. And no Powers (gods or god-like beings such as Asmodeus) are permitted in Sigil at all anymore. The Lady keeps them out.

The Lady of Pain doesn't work, because she's definitely active and would not want followers, certainly doesn't have interest in anything happening outside her city.

[Falconcry]

The Patron is really amorphous. My dwarven paladin took a hexblade dip at level 2 but we started at level 4 so I just added it into his backstory. He has no idea who his Patron is. He fell in love with another paladin from the temple and they went out to the forest one night. He was tied to a stone column with silken ropes and thought he had hit the jackpot until his lover started chanting in a low demonic voice.

The warlock picked up her battle-axe and was about to take his head when she was killed by a passing group of adventurers. As a javelin took her in the back the blade of the axe cut his beard 2 inches below the chin and into my paladin's throat. The blood and hair were absorbed by the blade. A cleric saved him and the fighter picked up his javelin and put the axe on his belt. The party moved on.

My paladin returned to the temple with a scar and a beard that would not grow. Instead of gaining his paladin's spells at level 2 he nearly took his commander's head off with an eldritch blast. Attempts to remove this curse failed and he was exiled from the clan. Now he seeks to find the one wielding the axe, where these powers have come from and perhaps who is wearing his beard.

[Christew]

Forgotten Realms. Classic really, I don't think we chang anything when it comes to official lore of 5e edition.

Not mentioned much these days, but it sounds like that may fit your needs.

Gargauth aka
The Hidden Lord
The Lord Who Watches
The Lost Lord of the Pit
The Outcast
The Tenth Lord of Nine

Gargauth was once the arch-devil Gargoth whose foul nature was too much even for others of his ilk. Exiled forever from the Nine Hells to the Material Plane under pain of complete destruction, Gargauth took to wandering the planes, returning time and again to the world of Toril. The only complete record of these journeys exist in a journal he wrote while making them, the original of which is kept in Oghma's library.

Despite being widely unknown to most people living in Faerûn, Gargauth appears in many cautionary tales and parables under the names of his aspects and guises.

He was never technically imprisoned as you describe, but he kind of falls out of history at a certain point, so you could easily say that he was.

[Segev]

Not mentioned much these days, but it sounds like that may fit your needs.

Gargauth aka
The Hidden Lord
The Lord Who Watches
The Lost Lord of the Pit
The Outcast
The Tenth Lord of Nine

Gargauth was once the arch-devil Gargoth whose foul nature was too much even for others of his ilk. Exiled forever from the Nine Hells to the Material Plane under pain of complete destruction, Gargauth took to wandering the planes, returning time and again to the world of Toril. The only complete record of these journeys exist in a journal he wrote while making them, the original of which is kept in Oghma's library.

Despite being widely unknown to most people living in Faerûn, Gargauth appears in many cautionary tales and parables under the names of his aspects and guises.

He was never technically imprisoned as you describe, but he kind of falls out of history at a certain point, so you could easily say that he was.

That did remind me of one. Thulcondar, Demon Prince of Humanity, was a figure in a really old 1e AD&D adventure featuring "Wilchidar's Well." He was imprisoned there, and if the party gets to his prison in the dungeon, they can free and fight him, IIRC. (It's been forever since I read it, and it was sparse on details that weren't directly relevant to the dungeon.)

[Man_Over_Game]

The Lady of Pain doesn't work, because she's definitely active and would not want followers, certainly doesn't have interest in anything happening outside her city.

It could. The Lady does have her servants, the Dabus. They are capable of worship, as the last straw that caused Aoskar to be slaughtered by the Lady was one of her own Dabus declaring himself a Cleric of Aoskar.

Additionally, it's mentioned that the Raven Queen and the Lady of Pain have some deeper connection, according to Mordenkainen's.

I could see a chance that the Lady maybe brokering a deal, but it's pretty slim.

[Evaar]

WOW! Mate, those are all great!! Gonna dig that lore of them asap. I especially like Levistus as I wanted to take at some point Levistus Tomb invocation, which would fit nicely.

If you have more of those- throw them on me. Gonna have busy weekend.

A lot of the best examples have been covered, I'll just add a couple that pop to mind:

This is basically Tharizdun's whole deal: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Tharizdun

Tiamat just tried to break out and got shut down: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Tiamat

Weirdly a lot of entities that I'm thinking of got resurrected or freed, like Graz'zt, Zuggtmoy, Kiaransalee, Bhaal, Savras.

[Millstone85]

This is basically Tharizdun's whole deal: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Tharizdun

This page gives me a headache.

Tharizdun created the Abyss, eh? That's 4e Nentir Vale lore, which was kept separate from 4e Forgotten Realms lore. Indeed, 4e NV and 4e FR gave different reasons for the Abyss being part of the Elemental Chaos.

Spoiler: Tangent

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In 4e NV, it was because the Abyss was created there when Tharizdun threw an evil seed into the Elemental Chaos. Asmodeus would later journey to the heart of the Abyss, steal a shard of it, and use it to kill He Who Was, the benevolent god who ruled over the astral dominion of Baator. Thus would begin Asmodeus' reign, but also the Blood War as the demons of the Abyss sought to reclaim the shard.

In 4e FR, it was because, around the same time the Spellplague reorganized the planes, a newly-divine Asmodeus decided to halt the Blood War by throwing the Abyss into the Elemental Chaos.

Both versions are now of dubious canon to 5e, which has reinstated the Great Wheel as a shared cosmology between D&D settings. Because the Critical Role setting of Exandria seems to be the closest thing 5e has to Nentir Vale, I wish I could go out and buy the recent book. But, you know, everyone has to stay home, especially in a city like Paris.

[Addaran]

This page gives me a headache.

Tharizdun created the Abyss, eh? That's 4e Nentir Vale lore, which was kept separate from 4e Forgotten Realms lore. Indeed, 4e NV and 4e FR gave different reasons for the Abyss being part of the Elemental Chaos.

Spoiler: Tangent

Show

In 4e NV, it was because the Abyss was created there when Tharizdun threw an evil seed into the Elemental Chaos. Asmodeus would later journey to the heart of the Abyss, steal a shard of it, and use it to kill He Who Was, the benevolent god who ruled over the astral dominion of Baator. Thus would begin Asmodeus' reign, but also the Blood War as the demons of the Abyss sought to reclaim the shard.

In 4e FR, it was because, around the same time the Spellplague reorganized the planes, a newly-divine Asmodeus decided to halt the Blood War by throwing the Abyss into the Elemental Chaos.

Both versions are now of dubious canon to 5e, which has reinstated the Great Wheel as a shared cosmology between D&D settings. Because the Critical Role setting of Exandria seems to be the closest thing 5e has to Nentir Vale, I wish I could go out and buy the recent book. But, you know, everyone has to stay home, especially in a city like Paris.

Tharizdun is a multiverse kind of threats from what i've read. Maybe he's only created the abyss in another setting but he's also affecting the FR one. He's the one who started the module

Spoiler

Show

Princes of the Apocalypse